SLOCHS Community Based Learning Weblog

Shift #3 Due to the fact that Kimberly was promoted and needed to spend most of her time at the Museum instead of at the warehouse location, I spent the rest of my shifts working out of the Museum, although I continued to work on the same box that I had been sorting through for most of the rest of my time with SLOCHS. This box that I sorted through was a normal sized box, but it was amazing to find the variety and volume of various items it contained. I found several differently sized photography envelopes that were unfortunately empty. However, I also discovered several certificates of recognition and appreciation to both Young and Stella Louis including SLO Rotary Club memberships and Recognition of 42 years of service to the SLO Rotary Club. Young Louis also received a Mustang Award for outstanding service to Cal Poly and the Louis family received a Cal Poly Distinguished Alumnus Award. The number and value of these awards demonstrates how greatly involved Stella and Young Louis were in the SLO community. Another random but quite interesting piece of history that I discovered in the box was guidebook to New Orleans that was published in 1936. I also discovered a newspaper article from the SLO Reporter Sept 11, 1952 that described the blue ribbon award that was won by Stella Louis for a picture she had taken that was awarded at the First Annual Professional Photographers Association of CA. The best find of the day was an envelope containing a letter from Manuel BoyFrank from Cambria, CA to Young Louis asking him to review the following letter. The second letter in the envelope was from Manuel to a Mr. Lai in San Francisco, CA and the letter contained Mr. BoyFrank’s reasearch about the history of Chinese people in Cambria and SLO County. If any of you are particularly interested, Prof. Yeh and I both have a copy of this letter. Finally, two other interesting things that I found in the box were a manuscript describing the Chinese New Year Celebration as it used to happen in old China and a roll of special paper with many artistic paintings of birds, flowers, and Chinese characters. Whew, that was quite the informative and interesting session.

Shift #4 The discoveries from this shift weren’t quite as significant as those from the previous shift, but the box still had many interesting things to reveal to me. One interesting thing that I found was a Wedding Form for the wedding of Roberta Mary Mace and Jesse Richard Strand at Grace Church in SLO. The really interesting part is that the form describes all of the details of the wedding, including what the flowers looked like and how the church was decorated. I soon found out that these two were close friends of Stella and Young through a letter that Roberta sent to Stella concerning wedding details. In addition, I discovered several instructional books: Arithmetic part 2 & 10, Letter Writing part 2, and an entire series of books (1-25) of “The Sherwin Cody 100% Self-Correcting Course in the English Language” along with a Brief fundamentals book that accompanied that series. Well, thats all for this session. I wonder what interesting pieces of history I will discover next session?

Shift #5, Last Shift During this shift I finally finished sorting through the box! One finding of interest from this session was 2 almost identical certificates, one each to Stella and Young Louis from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California congratulating them on their 71st wedding anniversary. I also found a cloth membership banner for the Rotary Club of Taipei, China and a Certificate to Young Louis for a 50 year Membership Award to the Rotary Club of SLO. My final discovery from the box was a drawing on a photo negative sheet that depicted Stella and Young Louis looking exhaused in their photography shop after a very busy Christmas season. It was a Christmas card wishing Seasons Greetings to all of their friends. After I finished the box, I had a couple of hours left in this session so Kimberly sent me upstairs to work on labeling some photographs and to docent due to the fact that there were no volunteer docents assigned to that day and Mercy, who was docenting during most of the morning session, needed a break. Anyway, nothing too exciting happened during my short time as a docent and that ends my time with SLOCHS. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I felt that I learned a lot about Stella and Young Louis through the many interesting pieces of history that I found in that box. The questions that I am left with now are about their family. Did they have any children? If so, what are their names and where are they now? Are there still decendants of the Louis family living in SLO County?